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Samsung F2380 review

Good image quality at a keen price, but gamers and movie buffs should steer clear

Price when reviewed:

194(£165 exc VAT)

5

One glance at Samsung’s F2380 and it’s clear this is a monitor that wants to appeal to the professional market. There’s no sign of Samsung’s extrovert Touch of Colour design, no ostentatious clear plastic curves or glossy, crimson-infused fascia. Instead, the F2380 contents itself with a classy, unshowy design and a range of business-orientated features.

Unlike much of the competition, however, the F2380 exudes more class than the usual business monitor. The slender cylindrical stand and slim dimensions give it a honed physique its competitors would kill for.

Practicality hasn't been left by the wayside, though: the stand gives 130mm of height adjustment, pivots into portrait mode and tilts back and forth. The only downside is that it isn’t as stable as it could be, and we had to use two hands to stop it teetering around on the desk.

The 23in panel doesn’t offer any more pixels than most 22in monitors, with a 1,920 x 1,080 native resolution, but legibility is slightly improved and image quality is largely excellent.

Our technical tests revealed a monitor with a solid grasp throughout the colour spectrum: the darkest shades of grey were easily distinguishable from black, and likewise, the lightest of greys stood proud of the pure whites alongside.

Apart from slight backlight leakage at the bottom-left and top-right corners, the F2380 continued to put in an excellent performance. Black levels were exemplary, and whites as pure and bright as we could hope for, while colours were almost as punchy as on pricier S-PVA displays.

Further testing revealed a slight tendency to crush the darkest greys into the surrounding blacks, but it’s something that could be easily rectified with a decent calibration tool.

The Achilles’ heel of the F2380 is its response time. Its C-PVA panel trumps the usual TN panels found at this price point in most regards – colour accuracy, vibrancy, black levels and contrast levels all proved far superior – but response time isn’t one of them.

Samsung quotes a grey-to-grey transition time of 8ms, but moderate movement in our HD video clips introduced ugly smearing, and even with the display at its fastest setting the effect was enough to obscure fine detail on moving elements.

It's not one for movies, games or video production, then, but if you can live with the geriatric response time, the Samsung F2380 will make a great monitor for static design professionals working to a tight budget.